Semiproletariat
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 The class of marginalized workers who lack regular employment, such as working peasants, pedlars, small handicrafts makers, and the underemployed. countable, uncountable
"To obtain such a cost differential they must either be able to hold back the proletariat's demands for real wage increases, using segments of the semiproletariat as 'strike breakers', or if they transfer a portion of the advantage to the proletariat they must obtain the asisistance of this group to hold the semiproletariat firmly in check - indeed to expropriate some or all of its land resources."
Example
More examples"To obtain such a cost differential they must either be able to hold back the proletariat's demands for real wage increases, using segments of the semiproletariat as 'strike breakers', or if they transfer a portion of the advantage to the proletariat they must obtain the asisistance of this group to hold the semiproletariat firmly in check - indeed to expropriate some or all of its land resources."
Etymology
From semi- + proletariat.
More for "semiproletariat"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.